Grain Of Hope
by JulieM
Summary: Just a bit of fun that I thought up. Mac gets a glimpse of a private message and has a bad case of the greeneyed monster. Has Harm moved on without her? COMPLETE!


Title: Grain Of Hope. By Jules

Summary: Just a bit of fun that I thought up. Mac gets a glimpse of a private message and has a bad case of the green-eyed monster. Has Harm moved without her?

Disclaimer: I don't own JAG or any of it's characters, but just borrow them for a while to exercise my overactive imagination! JAG belongs to DPB, Bellisarius Productions and CBS.

Spoilers: This piece is set somewhere in season nine, after 'Hail & Farewell 1 & 2,'before"Dream Team' and 'Fair Winds And Following Seas.' All episodes in this range are therefore spoilers.

Rating: PG.

Category: Slightly H/M shipper, UST

Feedback is always very welcome! Just hit that review button!

OOOO

"Ma'am, do you know where Commander Rabb is?" Petty Officer Jen Coates asked her superior officer, as Mac wandered across the bullpen, in the direction of the break room for some coffee.

"Uh, yeah, he went out to go see a specialist at Bethesda," Mac told her. "He said he may not be back until after eleven."

"Is there anything wrong, Ma'am," Jen asked with concern that made Mac smile.

"No, it's something related to the case he and Bud are prosecuting," she shook her head.

"Oh, well…good," Jen stammered, adding, "I just wanted to give him these…they're messages that came in for him last night, after he left early. I missed him this morning because I was downstairs in the library…should I give them to Commander Roberts? He is working a case with him just now…"

"That's okay," I tell her, "I'll take them for now. He's agreed to come to a late lunch with me so that we can discuss the new case that the General gave us yesterday. Are you heading out?"

"The General has requested that I accompany him to his meeting with the SecNav to take notes, so I probably won't be coming back here today."

"Okay," Mac nodded and took the stack of messages from Jen, "Wow, there are quite a few of these, aren't there? Are any from Mattie?"

"No, Ma'am," Jen shook her head, regretfully.

They had been desperately hoping that the young girl would keep in contact with her former-guardian, but she was obviously having too busy of a time getting back into her former life.

"Okay, thanks Jen," Mac smiled, "You have a good time at the meeting with the SecNav!"

"Will do, Ma'am," Jen told her, giving her a look that clearly said, 'yeah, right!'

This SecNav was starting to become about as enjoyable to be around as the last one. Must be something about the job!

Mac retrieved a cup of coffee and made her way back to her office. Once she had taken her seat again, she tossed Harm's phone messages down and the pile fanned out across the desktop.

While she worked on her latest case file, her eyes could not help but wander from in front of her to the messages now displayed clearly. Most were the usual sort of thing, from the dry cleaner's to let him know that his uniforms were ready for collection, several contacts getting back to him about queries relating to his current cases…but there was one that really did catch and hold her attention;

'Marley called…She asked that you call her back when you get the chance.'

It seemed innocent enough, but Mac couldn't get the thought of this one message out of her head. Who was Marley? What did she want to speak to Harm for? And why exactly was it 'Marley'? Why not Ms. So-and-so? Or even better, Mrs. So-and-so…

Mac caught herself before her thoughts spiraled out of her control. Well, she wasn't somebody he was in touch with regarding a case; that was for sure. The first-name basis was too informal for that. Could he perhaps be seeing her? Again, Mac had allowed her thoughts to get away from her. She shouldn't be thinking about any such thing. It was Harm's personal business and she shouldn't have been looking through his messages in the first place. But what about 'being there' for her? Hadn't he said that he'd be waiting for her, when she was ready? Well, she had pushed him away one time too many and Mac didn't think that he'd still be waiting for her anymore. He had never seemed to be impatient, but he'd never reiterated his promise and now so much time had passed. Ever since that day on the beach at Manly, despite the silence between them concerning 'us,' Mac had still held out hope, even if it was just a grain or two…She must have been wrong though.

OOOO

"Hey Mac," Harm stuck his head into her office, once he returned from his trip to Bethesda, "Have you seen Petty Officer Coates?"

"She's out with the General for a meeting with the SecNav," she told him, adding, "But she wanted me to give you these. They came in for you last night, after you left."

Mac scooped up the messages, noting that the one from 'Marley' was second from the top.

"Oh, thanks," Harm took them from her, before taking a quick glance through them.

"Anything interesting?" Mac couldn't help but ask.

"Not really," he told her, even while he paused at the one from the mystery woman, "The usual…okay, well thanks...are we still on for lunch?"

"Yeah," Mac nodded, "Just give me fifteen minutes to finish up here, then I'll come and get you."

"Okay," Harm nodded, before leaving.

OOOO

It was a crazy impulse to visit on a Saturday afternoon and she didn't really have any plausible excuse to do so. She had actually been on her way home after a shopping trip out when she decided to take the exit for Union Station upon a whim.

'He might not even be there,' she thought to herself, 'he could be in Blacksburg visiting Mattie or doing maintenance on his plane.'

But she was very happy to find that his car was there. When Mac got out of her car, however, she could see that a whole host of equipment was strewn in the parking space next to it. As she got closer, she saw a pair of sneakers sticking out from under it…and they certainly weren't big enough to be Harm's, even if he did wear Converse sneakers! She flinched a bit as she noted the loud music that was booming out of the stereo next to the mechanic's equipment; The Black Eyed Peas were good, but it was not necessary to have them playing this loud? Mac stood where she was, just contemplating what to do next. It was obvious that the person was not a thief cutting up Harm's corvette for parts (car thieves didn't lug all of this equipment with them or play music this loud either, did they?) but Mac had no idea who this stranger was or where Harm was while this individual was lying underneath his car.

"Hello?" Mac asked, but the person obviously didn't hear her.

She was about to speak up again when there was a metallic clang of something being dropped underneath the car and the person let out a loud 'crap!' followed by a whole string of cuss words that would have made Mac's boot camp drill sergeant blush.

Mac was now lost for words, so she didn't even try to say anything more, but spent a few minutes silently wondering what she should do. Should she go up to Harm's apartment?

All her thoughts went out of the window when there was a loud scrape as the mystery individual pulled out from under the corvette.

Whoever she was, she was even more surprised to see Mac than Mac was to see who she was.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, quietly, "I'm sorry…A friend of Harm's?"

Mac nodded, smiling.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie," Mac told her, as the young woman wiped a grimy hand clean on her overalls and stood to shake her hand.

'Well,' Mac thought, 'at least I know that she isn't a car-thief…'

"You're Mac?" the young woman bent to turn down the music, seeming to realize who Mac was, anyway, "Yes, Harm's mentioned you a couple of time…well, quite a bit, actually…"

Mac couldn't help but give her a strange look.

"Uh, about how you work together, that is…How long have you been standing there?"

Mac knew by the coloring in her cheeks that she was probably hoping that she had not heard her imaginative language, just a few minutes earlier.

"Not long," Mac told her, trying to keep her face impassive.

"Well, I'm Marley, Marley Kilshaw…Harm's an old friend and when he said that he was having trouble with his 'vette, I offered to help him out…Corvettes are my specialty…"

"I see you've met the grease monkey," Harm spoke up from the entrance to his building, masking the breath of relief that Mac was unsuccessful in keeping in.

"Yeah," Mac nodded, "she was telling me that your 'vette has been having trouble. Nothing too serious, I hope."

"Nothing this wonder girl can't take care of," Harm placed a warm hand on Marley's shoulder, grinning from ear to ear, "Marley's family and mine have known each other since Mom and I moved into Frank's house in La Jolla. She was in diapers, the last time I saw them all!"

"Harm!" Marley got a dig under his arm and into his ribs, "Do you always have to tell people that!"

"Aw, c'mon," Harm tried to make peace, "I was seventeen. I was leaving home and it was the only time I even saw you, together with your parents. You can't blame me from holding onto the image."

"Now you see why I left California," Marley commented, with teeth slightly gritted, shaking her head, "He's almost as bad as all of the old women who used to baby-sit me when I was a kid!"

"How long have you been in DC?" Mac asked, more at ease in the conversation now that she knew 'Marley' was a young lady of just 21.

"Uh…what is it now?" Marley turned to Harm for help, "At least two years, now, huh?"

"Three, next fall," Harm told her, nodding.

"Wow, time flies…" Marley shook her head and lowered herself back to the ground, about to go back under the car, "Sorry, excuse me for just a couple of minutes to get this done before it falls apart…"

"Falls apart?" Harm exclaimed loudly, horrified.

Marley gave a snort of laughter before she disappeared again and Harm realized that she had got him good.

"Can you believe that this kid knew how to take apart, clean and put back together an entire car engine by the time she was ten years old?" he asked Mac, nodding his head towards the sneakers sticking out from under the car.

"Impressive," Mac smiled, asking innocently enough, "So you've known her the whole time she's been in DC?"

Harm must have figured what she was getting at, for the smile disappeared and he quickly moved to explain and justify himself.

"Yeah, but I've only run into her maybe a dozen times since then. She started working at the garage where I used to take my vette. That's where she recognized my name, when I brought my car in, one time. Then the garage shut down and I lost touch with her for a while. I finally ran into her again the last time I was in La Jolla. She was at my Mom's birthday party, because she was taking some time out from working. Then she came back to DC, about six months ago and helped me to do some more advanced repair work on the car…That was right around the time we discovered about Clay…I didn't want to bother you about this sort of stuff when you were already dealing with so much already..."

"What happened to your 'vette?" Mac asked, seemingly satisfied with Harm's answer.

"It's just something we had to wait to do, because I couldn't get hold of the right parts," he explained, "It's far from routine so when Marley volunteered to do it, I jumped at the chance. She really is amazing at this…I'm constantly trying to get her to think about a career in the military!"

Mac chuckled, but the conversation was halted when Marley emerged from underneath the car again, with oil smeared down her cheek.

"What have you been doing to my car?" Harm demanded, grabbing the rag from her overall pocket and wiping the side of her face.

"It was just a little splutter!" Marley gave a look of annoyance, moving out of his reach, "Don't get your boxers in a bunch!"

She moved around to the hood of the car and stretched across it, seemingly encompassing the car in a hug.

"I'm sorry, baby," she told the car, stroking the hood, "I didn't watch where I was pointing that nasty welding torch, did I? But you forgive me, don't ya?"

Harm just gave a chuckle of amusement.

"Is it okay if I grab a soda from your fridge?" Marley straightened up again, heading towards the steps leading up to the building.

"Sure," Harm nodded, "the door is open."

Once Marley had disappeared, Harm turned back to Mac and laughed, "I can't believe she used to be the three-week-old baby that spit up on me, the first time I met her!"

Mac laughed along, asking, "Was that around when you left home for Annapolis?"

Harm nodded, telling her, "Yep. Her family moved out of the street soon afterwards, so it was a good 18 years before I saw her again, though our families kept in touch. I wouldn't have recognized her, but apparently I haven't changed a bit from the family photographs my Mom sent to her Mom, so she knew who I was…"

Harm trailed off and was silent for a minute, before he realized that he had no idea why Mac had showed up in the first place.

"Sorry, I forgot to ask you when you got here…would you like a drink or something?"

By now, Mac knew she'd have to find a reason for dropping in, or she would look pretty stupid.

"Uh, no thanks. But I was going to ask what you were doing tomorrow. I wondered if you wanted to go jogging in the morning?"

Harm smiled, "Yeah, that'd be great. How about we get some breakfast afterwards? But you may have to drive, if this doesn't get finished before then."

"No problem," Mac smiled, as she turned to go back to her car, where her frozen shopping would probably now be thawing, "I'll drop by to pick you up…0700 okay?"

"Great," Harm nodded and watched his partner go.

As she pulled out and took off towards home, Marley rejoined Harm, watching the red corvette disappear.

"Nice car…nice lady," she commented, handing Harm a soda she had brought for him, "just like you told me. I can see why you like her so much…"

"What did you tell her?" Harm was immediately on the defensive.

"Nothing…" Marley feigned innocence, then added, "Just that you'd told me that she was the woman of your dreams and that you wish she'd bear your children…"

Harm sprayed soda across whole yard in front of him, Marley jumped aside to prevent getting it on her sneakers and she turned to grin at him.

"You didn't!" Harm coughed, trying to get the bubbles out of his nose.

"No, but that is what you told me, isn't it?" Marley asked.

"I did not say it like that," Harm objected.

"No, but that was basically the gist of it," Marley shrugged.

"Besides," Harm pointed out, "I already explained the 'having kids' part of it, didn't I?"

"Yes," Marley sighed in annoyance, "yes, you did. But I'm sure that will just be a slight obstacle. Endometriosis isn't an exact science…I'm here, despite it…"

"Your Mom had endometriosis?" Harm asked with surprise.

"Yeah," Marley nodded, "The doctors told my parents that they wouldn't have kids, yet they still had me. Don't lose hope, because there's always at least a grain of it still around; you just need to keep looking for it. Just make sure you get the ring onto her finger and then the rest will take care of itself…I have every confidence in you, Rabb."

And with a grin, Marley moved to disappear back under the vette, leaving Harm staring after her inamusement.

FIN


End file.
